Hello all, it would time for the news once again from sites all over the world! We’ve got all kinds for you, and I’ve got a new phone reviews coming along with video cards and games. Also be on the look out for a giveaway or a few of them involving several video cards, Sparkle was kind enough to send us a few of them for review and to giveaway.

Storage Related:

USB Portable Media Player w/Card Reader & OTB @ BFR

Our friends at Geeks have sent me over another media player for review. This one holds a 2.5” drive, comes with remote and carrying case and it has controls right on the enclosure. As an added bonus you can also use a microSD card with it along with SD cards and even a memory stick, or you can hook up a USB flash drive or USB hard drive for added storage space. This little player is very versatile that’s for sure, it’s basic yes, but it’s not too bad.

"The Corsair Force 40GB SSD may be the baby in the Force Series family but that doesn’t stop it from putting up numbers to rival that of its older siblings in most of our tests. If you are considering entering the world of SSDs but don’t want to drop serious coin, this may be one of the best places to start. As far as other options go, the closest competitor is probably the Intel X25-V 40GB drive which can be found for roughly the same price but frankly, that drive is aging fast and overall does not offer the same performance as you will get from the Force 40GB drive. The 40GB Force drive performs superbly, albeit slightly behind its larger siblings. This can mostly be attributed to the lower density NAND but it still offers the fabulous SF-1200 controller with its support of TRIM and its proprietary DuraClass technology…"

==

Seagate GoFlex 1.5TB USB 3.0 Portable Drive.

In the recent past I took a look at the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Portable 500GB and walked away impressed. It had a decent power curve, with a killer feature: an upgradeable interface; but did have a few minor issues. It is for this reason when Seagate asked Everything USB to review their latest USB 3.0 iteration, the FreeAgent GoFlex Portable 1.5TB, that I said yes. Has Seagate worked out the couple minor bugs that kept the FreeAgent GoFlex Portable line from being perfect? Read on my full review to find out.

Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station Link: http://www.bigbruin.com/content/blacx5g_1Quote: The Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB 3.0 hard drive docking station supports a single hard drive or solid state drive, and connects it to the host system via USB 3.0. Not only does it take advantage of this one newer technology, but it also is compatible with SATA 3.0 hard drives, which promise a theoretical increase from 3Gbps to 6Gbps over previous generation drives.

QUOTE:"With several OEM wins and a growing retail product line, Hitachi has quietly been chipping away at Seagate and Western Digital over the last few years. Gone are the days of Hitachi making ‘me too’ products and the company is now firmly in the same league as these long time front runners. The notebook 2.5” sector is where I’ve seen Hitachi make the most growth. I don’t have any data to back up that claim, but since I work on notebooks quite a bit it is easy to see that a larger percentage have come my way with Hitachi drives filling their bays. Today we are going to look at Hitachi’s fifth generation 7,200 RPM 2.5” notebook drive. The 7K500 HTS725050A9A364 is one of Hitachi’s newest drives that feature 250GB platters."

==

Adata N005 16Gb USB3.0 Flash Drive. It’s one of the first flash drive to support the new USB3.0 interface. Here’s a snip …

In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the Adata Nobility N005 16Gb USB3.0 Flash Drive. It’s one of the first flash drive to feature the new USB3.0 interface and comes in an Aluminum body with a metal finish. It offers performance of upto 85MB/s:Read and 55MB/s:Write. Remember, to fully take advantage of the USB3.0 interface and use the drive to its full potential, you’ll need a computer or a notebook with a motherboard that supports the new USB3.0. It will be interesting to see what kind of speeds we’ll be able to achieve in our "real-life" tests.

Today we are looking at one of their new models, the budget Diskstation DS411j which offers a cost effective file storage and backup solution with Raid Protection for multi user home environments.

The DS411j is fully compatible with the fantastic new multi tasking Diskstation Manager 3. So what do you get for your money? A four drive NAS system for under £300 with a total of 8TB storage support? Yes please.

There is a great divide between media players and Home Theater PCs (HTPC). There are many pros and cons to each type of device, as I discovered from installing and managing a Home Theater network over many years. I eventually came to the conclusion that HTPCs are noisy, use way too much electricity, produce too much heat, and just don’t work right all of the time, which really impacts the SAF (Spousal Acceptance Factor). Patriot is a company that is known primarially for its computer memory solutions, but they have developed a media appliance that promises to resolve all of the issues of a HTPC in an inexpensive media appliance. This wonder product is known as the Patriot Box Office.

Plextor PX-B120U External Blu-ray Combo Reader Drive Review at Overclockers Online Link: http://www.overclockersonline.net/reviews/plextor-px-b120u-external-blu-ray-combo-reader-drive/Quote: With the PX-B120U, Plextor provides an affordable solution in a portable and convenient package. With support for reading not only regular CDs and DVDs, the PX-B120U also brings Blu-ray reading support to your fingertips. The single USB cable is a great implementation – you no longer need to carry around an extra power brick.

* Description: In the days where every person in the house has their own personal computer is no longer a luxury, and considering the fact that the term ‘family computer’ has long exited the minds of most people, it is interesting to see how much PC hardware has changed in the last decade — both in continually lowering prices, and fundamentally increased performance breakthroughs. I often find it kind of funny when I talk to some middle school kids in my church, where half of them probably have better cell phones than I did when I was in high school (Not to make myself sound old or anything — I’m only 20, haha). "I had a piece of crap Motorola when I was in high school. And way back when I was in elementary, cell phones were surely a luxury… and they did nothing more than call people. Not even text…" just as they glanced back at me, not exactly knowing how to respond. Meanwhile, at the mention of playing games like Need for Speed II on Windows 98 that did not seem all too long ago, these things were made even before they were born. Remember when Pentium II processors were considered state-of-the-art, and 8GB hard drives were the standard? Yeah, those were the days. If I said during that time period 8GB RAM kits would be readily available for less than $200 in ten years, most people would probably laugh out loud. It is just hard to imagine what we could possibly do with such magnitude of capacity, as if I am saying within the next ten years, 1000GB of RAM will be nothing out of the ordinary. But times have changed — and 8GB of RAM, while plenty, is not really such a foreign concept to us anymore. With that in mind, we are no longer stuck at low performance, high capacity memory kits, either. G.SKILL’s Ripjaws F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 2x4GB dual channel set for Core i5/i7 processors runs at DDR3-1600 with CL7 latencies, promising high capacity and high performance all at the same time. How well does this product fare in our benchmarks today? Read on to find out!

Playon!DVR HD Review @ HardwareHeaven.com "A.C. Ryan have just released the new Playon!DVR HD, an upgrade to the original Playon! HD with an integrated TV tuner and DVR. Not only that, they are powering through the firmware releases, fixing bugs and adding features regularly and with the most recent update available last week now seems like an ideal time to review the product."

Akasa have created two products which are just right for enthusiasts who want to adopt the USB 3.0 standard and especially for those with a couple of external storage devices.

First, the AK-PCCU3-01 PCIe extension card which adds two USB 3.0 ports to any system with an PCIe slot to spare. Second, the DuoDock S, the upgraded version of the very versatile HDD docking station. We are going to examine both devices and their performance thoroughly in this review.

Quote: The allure of an SSD is one that’s difficult to ignore, but with pricing still in the realm of limited adoption, many are choosing to wait things out. But what about taking a baby step into the SSD world, with a hard drive that equips a mechanical design with some NAND flash to speed things up? We’re taking a look at Seagate’s solution.

2010 Thumb Drive Roundup – 16 USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 Drives Prodded and TestedQUOTE:"Flash drives have become commodity products and everyone has at least one. Most people, even those technology challenged folks even have a small stack of these drives tucked into their purses and piled on their desks. For most a thumb drive is a thumb drive and they don’t see much of a difference between them. Looking at the flash drive section at the big box stores and it becomes apparent that many manufacturers are willing to let this go on. In many cases we found that performance data wasn’t published on the retail packaging, leaving end users to just assume speeds and make their purchases based on price and capacity alone. Today we are going to take a look at the latest crop of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 flash drives available on the market. This is the first year we have included USB 3.0 products in the round up and we are quite excited to see this new technology rapidly gaining acceptance in the market. The higher costs of USB 3.0 products means USB 2.0 still has some life left in it and with new quad channel designs USB 2.0 in some cases is just as fast as some early USB 3.0 drives."

==

Audio / Video:

Geeks has sent me over a video camera for review from Vivitar, it’s the DVR 910 that can do 720P video and has an 8.1Mp still camera on-board as well. The camera is very easy to use, but it has one rather large flaw in my opinion, and that’s no macro mode whatsoever. Sure it’s fine for taking videos and pictures from a distance but you can’t do anything close up.

DESCRIPTION: Providing full Blu-ray (BD) menu support alongside local and network based file playback the HDI Dune BD Prime 3.0 is an interesting device that defies easy classification as a simple BD player or media streamer. With an extensive feature set including a BD drive, HDMI 1.3, eight channel analog audio output and connected storage, the device offers flexibility for anyone looking for a “do anything” box. Keep reading to find out if the BD Prime 3.0 can deliver the right mix of value and capability to earn a place in your home theater.

Apple TV Review (Second Generation) "Steve Jobs doesn’t have many failures to mar his comeback at Apple, but if most Apple aficionados had to find one, we’re guessing it would be the little white box known as Apple TV. The first version arrived with a fizzle back in 2007, largely panned for its high price and low functionality. Apple has steadily sanded off rough edges year after year, though, and in 2010 Apple TV underwent a metamorphosis, entering a cocoon and emerging smaller and cheaper than ever. But does the latest version of Apple TV finally deliver on the promise Jobs pitched three years ago, or is Apple still struggling to break onto the big screen?" Link to the review: http://www.digitaltrends.com/media-streamer-reviews/apple-tv-review-second-generation/

Translation Link:http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3a%2F%2fwww.technic3d.com%2Farticle-1176%2C1-a.c.ryan-playon-hd-mini.htm&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8Quote: "The AC Ryan PlayOn! HD-Mini Media-Player arrived Technic3D. Playon!HD Mini is streamlined, compact, silent & equipped with the same specifications as the Playon!HD. The feature packed Mini automatically turns any attached USB storage device into a NAS device and offers more features than other media players in the same price bracket. The Playon! Series supports all the most popular media formats including Blu-ray and DVD ISO. Users can catalogue and play movies by cover art with YAMJ, the most popular Movie Jukebox program, or create their own cover art and movie information directory with ThumbGen.We will check the Features on the AC Ryan."

==

Nikon D3100 Review "Ho-hum-another new DSLR that shoots HD video. That was our reaction at the announcement of this new Nikon geared for first-timers to interchangeable lens ranks. And yet there’s something unique about this camera we’ll share with you in a click or two." Link to the review: http://www.digitaltrends.com/digital-camera-reviews/nikon-d3100-review/

==

Mobile Related:

During the past few months it seems as if iPhone 4 cases are debuting at a furious pace. I have personally reviewed more iPhone 4 cases than I could have ever imagined. Recently iGadgetlife was provided with four different case samples from XtremeMac, iSkin, AGF and Ballistics. Instead of reviewing each of these cases one by one we thought we’d do our first case round up.

HP EliteBook 2540p Review "After wading through netbook after anemic netbook over the past two years, you could be forgiven for dismissing HP’s diminutive EliteBook 2540p as yet another underperforming compact notebook at first glance. But give it a closer look. This is no mere netbook. While its 12.1-inch screen makes it the smallest of HP’s EliteBook business notebooks, it lacks little of their workhorse character, making it an ideal travel mate for the productivity crowd." Link to the review:http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/hp-elitebook-2540p-review/

==

OtterBox iPhone 4 Defender Series Case @ TechwareLabs

Quote: We are back again with Otterbox and their Defender Series case for iPhone 4. The Defender is their most rugged case, and comes complete with a belt clip for those with small pockets. It’s big, sturdy, and has a built-in membrane to protect the screen, so you don’t have to worry about applying a sticky one. LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/otterbox-iphone-4-defender-series-case/

==

OtterBox Commuter Case for HTC EVO 4G. .

"OtterBox is one of the handful of case providers that isn’t just in it for your money and the average consumer seems to be catching on to this fact. They have been making phone and other protective cases since before it was cool. Each time a highly anticipated phone is released, the OtterBox FaceBook page gets hammered with posts asking when a case will be available. Unfortunately, OtterBox is not always able to have cases available on the release date for every new mobile phone that comes out. Such was the case with Sprint’s flagship HTC Evo 4G."

If you have a notebook computer and you use it for any stretch of time at a proper desk, then you should really invest in a good notebook cooler. They’re not all built alike, believe it or not, so you really should do your research just as you would with any other technological gizmo that populates your home office One of the more innovative designs is the Cooler Master NotePal U3. It addresses a very common problem that you may find with other notebook cooling stands: different hot spots. Not all laptops get hottest in the same areas, so why should all coolers target the same areas?

Assorted Stuffs:

Enhance your browsing experience using bookmarkletshttp://www.techspot.com/review/330-enhance-browsing-with-bookmarklets/One of the reasons behind Firefox’s sustained popularity is the availability of a vast library of extensions. But expanding functionality through these add-ons can have some downsides of their own. For example, most of them are not cross-platform, so if you decide to try another browser your favorite extensions might not be available.

DESCRIPTION: There’s change in the wind, and nobody’s really sure which way it will blow. 3D technology, once the land of red and blue, has matured through the years and now offers several new platform choices – some of which won’t even require eyewear. Not many people will give NVIDIA the full credit of bringing 3D technology into the mainstream, but if there was a pioneer to be named they’ve certainly earned the title. Developed on years of stereoscopic vision research, NVIDIA released their first retail product at the tail end of 2008, branded GeForce 3D Vision. The past two years have grown this technology into a central feature, exclusive to their GeForce graphics product line, further evolving into a triple-display capability they’ve dubbed 3D Vision Surround. From many perspectives, it’s appeared that NVIDIA has been the name behind 3D technology, especially in terms of 3D gaming, but the truth is that it’s become a rather crowded market.

QUOTE:"Based in White City, Oregon, Smooth Creations sells built-to-order gaming PCs and is known for their high-quality custom paint jobs. The company hooked us up with an HD 5970-equipped, Phenom II X6 based system with a custom “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” paint scheme. Built on an ASUS Crosshair IV motherboard, the system packs an AMD 1090T overclocked to 4.0GHz (up from the stock 3.2GHz), and a Corsair H50 liquid cooler keeps the processor in its thermal comfort zone. ATI’s flagship 5970 2GB provides graphics processing."